Powder coating is a good and bad thing in my opinion. Ive had a few sets of wheels powder coated in the past, here are some little pieces of info that ive found about powder coating through experiance and research.
* Durable finish, so much more so than paint.
*Looks good although its not available in as much colours as paint and ive found that a few powder coaters have dificulty spraying anthracite.
* The powder coated wheels are so much easyer to clean, even just water brings them up like new.
*brake dust doesnt bond to the powder coating like it does with paint
*Some harsh alloy wheel cleaners leave powder coating looking dull.
* I do a few track days and with the heat on the wheels it does dis-colour the powder coating slightly, paint wont do this !
*Also on track days a couple of my friends have lost wheels which were powder coated, mid lap (these wheels were pre torqued before being tracked). After some research it was it was found this was caused by the powder coating process, Due to the stoving off the wheels this alters the structure of the aluminium causing it to react diferantly to heat in the future (EG the heat your wheels see on track days ) which cased it to expand/contract differantly to non heated alloys causing the wheel bolts to loosen. It seems this is Quite well know as when he was towed from the track the guy in the tow truck said " Not someone else with powder coated wheels "
Its also well documented on a few porsche and M3 forums.
I pesonally have not found and loosening of bolts during track days and have always been pretty happy with the wheels, but due to wheels dulling a bit on mine through track use i dont think i would get mine done. I would certainly recommend it to others who just drive on the road !
